I don’t disagree entirely, but there’s political theater that isn’t entirely self-serving and political theater that is. Plenty have commented on this, but in terms of coming across as more “presidential”, a basic requirement is taking responsibility for being commander in chief. High marks go to anyone who owns all…

In a dark room of the White House Press Office, Sean Spicer stares into a glass of gin. He brought his first bottle in when he took the job thinking a drink would be a good way to celebrate a good day or just to unwind after a particularly brutal press briefing. How many bottles ago was that? He couldn’t recall.

More importantly, he looked presidential... (which apparently, from what I can tell, just means putting on a suit, standing in front of both houses of Congress, and reading a speech off of a teleprompter which isn’t entirely unhinged, tosses out the right kinds of platitudes, and doesn’t nakedly display contempt for…

No apologies necessary; I think a lot of us just need to vent about our fears now. Fingers crossed for both of us (but in this case, I’ll cross them a bit more for you).  I think most people assume if the system is working for them, then it is working just fine and only realize it isn’t when it impacts them…

It gets even worse regarding the small changes because a refundable tax credit will help if you don’t pay enough or pay no taxes, but a non-refundable one won’t; it will just reduce your tax credit to zero and not pay you back. If they decide to switch from one to the other, you can be 100% CERTAIN they’ll still say…

Apparently, they are still doing that. Someone else posted the video from John Oliver’s last show where he covers this, but Bill Akins, secretary of the Republican Party in Florida, confronted some citizens who were angry about the possibility of gutting the ACA with the death panel spiel yet again. When he was booed,…

Thanks, but I am not so optimistic. The problem here is that a few slight changes in wording can actually make a big difference to some but seem the same to people in the general public who aren’t affected by them. Just as one example, they are considering changing the “subsidies” to “refundable tax credits”. This…

It is really frightening, but I have students that think they can fake their way through tests the same way he is trying to fake his way through being president. If I gave a test with a question that would be the equivalent to asking, “What precise policies would you propose to improve the healthcare system in the…

Really? My worry is that I’m going to lose my healthcare...

“nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated.”

“I don’t need a safe space. You need the safe space, you need the safe space...”

This isn’t going to affect their attempts to report the news; this is solely an attempt to delegitimize them as news sources. They’ll have to report the “official” position second hand (which opens them up to even more accusations of media bias and peddling “false news”), and it will prevent them from confronting the…

I mostly agree. The idea that having any kind of real debate or dialogue with hate groups or that both sides need to be heard equally is bullshit. At the same time, excluding anyone from the other side of an issue lends itself quite well to the whole false narrative these groups absolutely love which is that their…

(as if the world isn’t already tailored to maximize the comfort of cisgender people)

No, I’ve just always done my own taxes. I’ve never had an occasion where itemizing would have made a difference, but there were some occasions where I benefited from tax credits.

The problem is that they are proposing a child-care tax deduction rather than a child-care tax credit. A tax credit could, at least in principle, benefit everyone, but tax deductions only benefit those who itemize deductions rather than taking the standard deduction. Tax deductions disproportionately benefit…

Pretty much, but you missed the third step: Step 1: Ride coat tails to personal success, Step 2: Deny coat exists, insist it was all just “moxie” on your part, Step 3: Use your personal success to help a bunch of dudes who want nothing more than to set the coat on fire.

I’ve seen conflicting reports on that. Some indicated she was opposed to this and was strong-armed into going along with it while others suggested she wasn’t really opposed but was advocating a slower process with a period for public comment. The cynical interpretation would be that she knew how narrowly she got…

You know how you always hear that sharks have to keep swimming constantly or they will die...

Ben, I’m pretty sure that Bruce Wayne didn’t want to be Batman either; he’d rather have a mom and dad. Deal with it.